Higher quality of life boosts self-esteem for less fortunate

When news broke on the weekend that there’d been a stabbing at a downtown hotel, I was saddened but not surprised.

Having worked in the field of supportive housing and emergency shelter for more than 20 years now, it’s the kind of story I’ve read one too many times.

It’s the kind of story Siloam Mission got involved with two years ago when we purchased the Madison Lodge in Wolseley. At the time, it was a dilapidated 87-unit room and board facility that city inspectors wanted to shut down.

News junkies will remember there had been a couple of murders at the Madison in recent years.

These sorts of places seem to exist in every city.

I remember one in Calgary called Langin Place, which served a very similar clientele struggling with mental health problems and addictions. I was asked to give some recommendations on how to improve it.

Tenants were out of control when there was no supervision around.

Evenings and weekends were terrifying for many people who lived there. Some tenants would rent their rooms out for the night to prostitutes when they conducted their business. Others tenants were big bullies and used intimidation so that other residents would live in fear.

I urged Langin Place to invest in supervision and some support.

They did, and after putting 24-hour supervision in place, the unwanted street activities left. In addition, they also hired a support worker who befriended residents, monitored their mental health and connected them with health professionals.

That was a watershed moment for Langin Place. When Siloam Mission took over the Madison Lodge, we hoped for the same.

There was still a significant number of residents living in there, and we started renovating every floor to make the building a dignified place to call home.

The first thing we did was put in overnight supervision and a residential live-in worker. Then we brought in weekly volunteers to connect with the residents, play games or just listen to their stories. St. Margaret’s Anglican Church even built a garden across the street for our residents to grow food and get out a bit.

As of this week, there are 80 residents living in the Madison in their own freshly renovated rooms — and 23 of them are what we sometimes call 10-percenters.

Our manager of the drop-in and shelter has worked out a formula. He notes that 65% of people who use our shelter are there for less than a year, and if we don’t get personally involved with 25% of the remaining folks they end up being the 10% of people who are chronically homeless.

Before the Madison was available, some of these 10-percenters had been using our shelter for five years straight.

Now, we are seeing people live a higher quality of life, with higher self-esteem.

I can’t share any specific stories because I know my friends at the Madison are reading this, but what I can say is that we are incredibly proud of what they have achieved.

Many of them are participating at a level far above where they have been for years — in some cases even decades.